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Solid ?'s..my baby girl just made 5 months;)

Hello all I am new and happy to have found this forum! I need advice on when I should start my baby girl on rice cereal followed by first stage fruits and veggies. She made five months 4/6/08. Thanks for any and all advice! I am happy completely breastfeeding I am just feeling pressured to start, for she seems really interested! Oh and what about water to drink in addition to breast milk on hot days..we are outdoors a lot & live in New Orleans Jazz Fest is almost here, ya know!

Re: Solid ?'s..my baby girl just made 5 months;)

all of the major health organizations, such as american academy of pediatrics, world health organization, unicef, and more, say that babies should be exclusively breast fed for the first 6 months of life. If you have a lot of allergies in your family or if your baby already has allergy issues then you should wait longer than 6 months, but if not then 6 months is a good time to start. i will tell you what i learned - "seems interested" does not always mean that they're ready. our son is 8.5 months old. he started acting very interested in our food by 5 months but when we started to give him some solids at 6 months it was obvious that he was not truly interested in the food. Even now he barely eats any solids at all. he would just really rather have milk, and the solids are much more fun in the fingers than inthe mouth.

oh jeez as Im typing this he is crawling after our rabbit. What a riot!

Julie

edited to add: I'm not sure if the water would be an issue for you due to the weather where you live, I have read that water is not necessary for breastfed babies. Anthony LOVES to drink water out of a glass - that is his "stupid human trick" if you will. You do have to be careful about not giving them too much water, though. I let him have sips from my water occasionally, especially if we're out to dinner and I know he is bored. But it is not a regular part of his diet.

Re: Solid ?'s..my baby girl just made 5 months;)

I think it depends on your baby. Some are ready that early and some aren't. Our ped suggested 5 months as a start for DD, so that was when we first tried her on rice cereal. She loved it, and swallowed it all down. You could always try a few bites, and if she's not ready yet, you'll be able to tell. It will all get pushed back out, because she won't be able to get it to the back of her mouth to swallow, or she just won't be very interested. If that happens, I'd say wait a couple weeks and try again.

That said, if you're happy with nursing, there's nothing wrong with waiting another month, either. I think most babies are interested in whatever mama's doing, and it doesn't necessarily mean she really wants your food.

Re: Solid ?'s..my baby girl just made 5 months;)

I agree with the PP. We started our LO on rice cereal at 4 1/2 months. She was SOOOO ready to eat and we have not looked back!! She is eating stage 2 foods now at 6 1/2 months as well as continuing with expressed BM.

Re: Solid ?'s..my baby girl just made 5 months;)

I think I have read on this forum that once you give your baby anything other than BM, different bacteria starts growing in their guts which prevents some of the antibodies in BM to be effective. So the more you wait the better for her health. I had to start my son at 5.5 months because he was refusing to BF, BM from a bottle, cup, etc.... but I still regret it.
Also you may want to check out the link to get some ideas:http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/so...ay-solids.html

Re: Solid ?'s..my baby girl just made 5 months;)

We have several other NOLA mothers on here. If you haven't already, maybe check out your local LLL Group. http://www.lllalmsla.org

Some babies are ready for solids before 6 months, and some after. No matter the age, the important thing is to assess baby's readiness for solids. Here are the recognized signs of solids readiness:
*Sits up w/out support
*lost tongue thrust reflex (cause babies to push objects out of their mouth with their tongue)
*is devoloping pincer grasp (able to pick up tiny objects between thumb and forefinger)
*continues to be hungry despite increased nursing (unrelated to illness or teething)

Some false signs are:
*growth spurt, temporary increased nursing demand
*seems to "ask" for food at the table by grabbing for spoons and cups (in this case, baby might be content to sit at the table with everyone else with his own bowl and spoon).

As for water, your baby does not need additional water. Feel free to offer little sips with solids meals, of course. But otherwise, your baby does not require any additional water. Your breastmilk is the perfect food and thirst quencher for your baby. Continue to nurse on demand while you're out enjoying Jazz Fest. All will be well! Be sure to take care of yourselves in the heat. Find a shady spot to nurse and enjoy a nice tall glass of ice water for yourself.http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/so...aby-water.html

Re: Solid ?'s..my baby girl just made 5 months;)

Originally Posted by Give Peas A Chance

Some false signs are:
*growth spurt, temporary increased nursing demand
*seems to "ask" for food at the table by grabbing for spoons and cups (in this case, baby might be content to sit at the table with everyone else with his own bowl and spoon).

I had to quote this statement because it struck me. Just before we started solids for anthony he had a growth spurt and for a few days he was eating a lot more milk than usual. My parents watch him on thursdays and they were convinced after watching him that week that we simply were not feeding him enough and my mom even made the comment "maybe you should start giving him food so that he isn't filling up on all of that fattening breast milk".

In regards to the second false sign, my son does this constantly and grabs at our food too. But if we give him some he isn't really interested in eating it, he just wants to play with it. A lot of people think that because their baby is interested in their food it means the baby is ready. Sometimes that is what it means, but I think that most of the time it is just natural baby curiosity.

Re: Solid ?'s..my baby girl just made 5 months;)

I started solids at 5mo 3 weeks or so. I just had a feeling that my DD wanted to eat.She did not eat much just about 1tbl spoon of cereal mixed in EBM. If you look at the gerber chart, they recommend 1/2tbl sp on day 1, 1tbl sp on day 2..and by day 4 4tbl sp. My DD is now 7.5 months and does not take more than 1.5 to 2 tbl spoons. I used to worry that she is no getting the iron since 4tbl sp is one serving and that has some 45% iron needed or so. But then I was continuing to nurse as well.

Then I have her fruits and veggies.She eats them separately and does not like it when mixed with cereal. Sometimes she finished the 2.5oz jar and someties she does not.

So see what is best for your LO. I think kellymom website suggest Nursing first and giving solids after an hour or so.